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Sunday's NCAA Action
March 24, 2013
By CarbonSports
This is the last day teams have an opportunity to punch their ticket to the Sweet 16 and you can bet that it will all be left on the floor today. It is a day full of quality teams that deserve to be there but here are two games where I believe the favorites are the way to go.
Creighton vs. Duke (-4.5)
Creighton escaped with a four-point win over Cincinnati in their first game but Duke presents a whole new set of challenges that I don’t think the supporting cast of Creighton can handle.
Everyone knows about Doug McDermott and his ability to score anywhere on the floor but Duke has numerous defenders they will put on him in this one and look to shut him down for the entire 40 minutes. Chances are they won’t shut him down completely, but if Duke can force the other Blue Jays to shoot more than they would like, the Blue Devils will find themselves in the driver’s seat.
Duke has plenty of guys that can score and their bigs should be able to own the glass inside. Depth may be a problem for Duke but it won’t be in this one as Creighton is basically a one-man show with McDermott. Guys like Seth Curry can be deadly from distance and the rest of Creighton’s players won’t know exactly how to contain all of Duke’s options. Duke got a bit of a scare from Albany in their first game and big favorites like this that have things get tighter than they expected, tend to come out next game and not screw around.
Lay the points with Duke.
La Salle vs. Mississippi (-3.5)
A rare 12 vs. 13 matchup here as both teams pulled off huge upsets on Friday. La Salle and the Atlantic 10 teams were 5-0 in the round of 64 and La Salle actually makes it 6-0 with their win in the play-in game over Boise State. They know they are playing with house money at this stage and will come into this one with tremendous confidence.
But confidence is the strong point of this Ole Miss team that is coming off an SEC tournament win and beating Wisconsin in their NCAA tournament opener. Marshall Henderson has irrational confidence at times and it doesn’t matter how poorly he starts shooting the ball in a game, he will continue to let it fly and eventually things will start to drop. He poured in 19 points against Wisconsin in a game that everyone believed the Badgers would shut him down and now he has to feel like there isn’t a defense out there that contain him.
This Ole Miss team has gotten hot at exactly the right time and a Sweet 16 birth is only a few days away.
Lay the points with Mississippi.
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ASA |
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4-2 L6, 8-3 L11, 20-9 L29 Picks |
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